Homeschool Update #2

Well, today we begin week 3 of Homeschooling. I think overall it’s been pretty successful. I’ve had to readjust and find what works best for Sweetie Girl. We’re still working through all the details and getting into a routine.

I’m anxious to finish 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum and get some good curricula for her. It’s exhausting trying to figure it all out on my own. I’m excited to have something that tells me what to do and when to do it. 

We had a few new things happen this week. We pretty much skipped a whole day of school, because Sweetie Girl just wasn’t feeling it. There have been days when we struggled through getting school work finished and I’ve tweaked the work, to avoid huge struggles. I guess that’s the benefit of essentially creating the curriculum myself. However, today when we planned to do school, a last minute nap was needed for a certain Sweetie Girl. We did bake bread go to the library and she helped me with dinner several times this week.

We also went on our first field trip this week! We went to the zoo for the first time this year! Sweetie Girl helped me create a Zoo Passport for her,  Little Man and our friends to see what animals we saw at the zoo! She was SO excited to show everyone and we had a great time picking out pictures of all the animals! Unfortunately her’s disappeared before we left the zoo. 

This week, we will begin a CO-OP. We are excited about it! Friday School will give Sweetie Girl a chance to be with kids her age and older as well as some extra learning opportunities for the boys! I can’t wait to get involved and connected with some local homeschool families. 

On a total different subject, we finally got Sweetie Girl into a twin bed this weekend! She’s really excited! This created a chain reaction we’ve needed to do for quite sometime. Little Man got moved to the toddler bed and Baby Boy finally moved out of the pack n play and into the crib. 

Here are a few pictures from our first week of homeschooling, zoo and new beds for all! 

We moved from Texas to Colorado in 2013, just 2 short months after Baby Boy was born. Sweetie Girl was 4 and we had been discussing what we wanted to do for schooling. We had been looking into preschools before we moved and decided to just do some preschool stuff at home instead of sending her somewhere. Especially since school would have already begun once we made our move. We tried to do some research on schools in Colorado once she turned 5, but had trouble really locating any options. We knew we didn’t want to send her to public school and we didn’t want to send her to a huge school. There were very few charter schools where we had moved from and we didn’t even think of researching them. So, we landed on private school. We got a scholarship that made it somewhat affordable.

We started thinking about the future, we could only get the scholarship for 3 years and we still have 2 more kids at home. I know for a lot of you, changing schools doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but I lived in the same house from the time I can remember and went to the same school district with most of the same people from kindergarten thru graduation. It’s hard for me to imagine what it would be like. I also think it would have been devastating to me if I had moved. We’re thinking eventually, there’s going to come a time when private school just isn’t an option and really it was barely an option in the first place. We decided to start looking into what other choices may be available.

There were also many other reasons we began to look at our other options. The biggest reason was that Sweetie Girl would frequently make comments about never getting to see us or spend time with us or snuggle with us. She was utterly exhausted everyday. She would fall asleep on the couch every night before bed until we moved up her bedtime and then she still ended up crashing on the couch several nights a week. There was a significant increase on whining and fit throwing as well. Also, I had to move up the boys nap times so they could get it in before we had to leave to get Sweetie Girl from school and I ended up waking them from naps pretty much daily. 

We started this whole process with trying to figure out what the best option would be starting in 1st grade. As I said before we weren’t really interested at all in public schools, so we looked in to charter schools in our area, and there are a lot, but that would have only really solved the financial aspect of our situation and not really answered the most important reasons for re-evaluating what was best for our family. 

Obviously, that left our main option to be homeschooling. Although, this is something Hubby has been wanting to do for a while, I was hesitant. I didn’t even consider it an option for 2 reasons: I didn’t know what all it would entail and I didn’t feel smart enough. I decided to ask some friends who homeschool if they could share experiences from their homeschooling adventures, I went to a bookstore that sells a lot of homeschool curricula and we prayed and we asked our families to pray. The more we did, the more we decided we wanted to homeschool and if we were going to start homeschooling, why not just start now. 

So last month, we pulled Sweet Girl out of school (really we just let them know that she wouldn’t be going back after Christmas break). We started homeschooling last Monday. Even though we jumped in to homeschooling with both feet, we still had LOTS of questions. We decided to wait on buying curriculum and mostly use free stuff we found online and a few small books for a couple of subjects. 

We took a trip to the library a couple of weeks ago and found some books on homeschooling. One of those books has been an amazing help in answering many of my questions. It’s called: 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy. Yes, I know there are several updated versions, but it’s what they had available at the library. Anyway, this book has helped tremendously in answering many of my questions and I’m not even finished with it. It asks some really important questions and walks you through writing your own Philosophy of Education. It also talks about the different types of homeschooling and asks questions to help you determine what type is best for you. It explains the different learning types as they correlate not only to the child, but also to the parent as a teacher. Then it shares 100 different curricula and walks you through what will be the best options taking all these things into consideration. Then it reviews each of them. 

It’s been so helpful in answering many questions that I felt I should already know when talking with others who have been homeschooling. It’s helped me decide what things we feel are most important to teach and what are the best ways to discover and utilize Sweetie Girls and my learning/teaching styles. How they differ and how they're the same and what will work best for us. It’s gotten me more excited and a little less overwhelmed with all the options out there. 

Being a parent is filled with moments when you put your foot in your mouth and do things you thought you’d never do. I never thought I would be a homeschool mom, I also never thought I’d drive a minivan or have picky or whiny kids, or any number of things. Honestly, the list is just too long. So, here’s our little story on how we came to homeschooling. My plan is to continue to share our adventure, but I haven’t really ever been super successful in my blogging, so no guarantees. 

I’m not saying that this is what we’ll do forever. We’re going to try it out and take it year by year. Life, family, it’s all a journey with many different twists and turns, most of them that we never saw coming. We just trust that God has our best interests in mind and we handle it all to the best of our abilities. 

Here’s to continued research, to experiments, to trial and error and learning as we go. Here’s to our homeschool adventure, no matter where it takes us! 

Life

So I get behind on blogging and then the idea of catching up turns me off. So rather than catching you up on whats been going on in our life, I'm just going to start fem here and hopefully I'll continue blogging. Not sure who all reads this anyway.

I'll give a quick update and then move on. Grant was born on July 24th, 2 weeks later The Hubs was offered a job at Focus on the Family and 2 months later we moved. We struggled to find a place to rent and ended up in a tiny 2 bedroom apartment. I can honestly say that situation was probably the worst season in my life.

We have family visit us for Christmas and more family visit in April. We also celebrated Little Man's 2nd birthday, my birthday and Sweetie Girl's 5th birthday! We purchased a house mid-May and are getting settled. The kids and I have been pretty involved with a local MOPS group!

Now here's I'll be joining the Ministry Team for our MOPS group in the Fall and Sweetie Girl starts kindergarten in August. She'll be attending a local Christian school. She's VERY excited to start school. She's been waiting since she was 2 1/2! We're also pretty excited about getting more involved in our church this fall. Tomorrow we're participating in Walk for Life. It's a local walk/run to support Life Network. They have a pregnancy center and other helpful programs for our community. The Hubs will be doing the run and I'll be walking with the kids and the Grandparents. Sweetie Girl will be running in the kids run and she's super excited!

Baby Boy will turn 1 in July and I can't believe it's so close! Does you ever feel like a year can drag and go fast at the same time?

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully you'll be hearing from me a little more often.

An Update and Lots of Randomness

Warning: This is a long post.

Well, it's been a while since I posted. I've been getting things ready for Baby Boy. He's due on August 14th. I know he could wait that long or longer to get here, but I'm SO ready to be done. I've been really uncomfortable recently. I feel like he's dropped and it's miserable to walk just about anywhere. Feels like he's going to fall right out. I'm 35 weeks, I know it's best he stays in there for as long as possible, but if I could guarantee he'd be completely healthy, I'd have him right now. Sweetie Girl came one day after her due date and Little Man came a week and a half early. From the start of contractions to him being born was 5.5 hours. I think Baby Boy will be early too, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high.

We've been busy around here. Sweetie Girl went to her first ever VBS in June and she LOVED it! We started a reading program with one of our local libraries. It started June 18th and goes through July 24. In that time period, I've been reading to her since she's not reading on her own. For each 12 hours we read, she gets to pick a book and gets entered to win some other prizes. So far we've ready about 14.5 hours! She loves it! She's constantly asking me to read to her! She's always loved reading and looking at books! Little Man is almost 17 1/2 months old! He understands just about everything you say, but he doesn't talk much. He can say more, momma, ball, book, boo. He also makes engine noises and animal noises. We've been working with him to know where his ears, eyes, nose, etc. He's doing really well! I started Beth Moore's, Breaking Free Bible Study, it's actually the 3rd time that I have attempted to finish this study. I haven't made it yet. We'll see if Baby Boy lets me or not.

I've been working to get everything ready for Baby Boy's (BB) arrival. We didn't need much since he and Little Man (LM) are so close in age. LM is still in the crib and we aren't quite ready to change that, so BB will be in the pack n play. We are very blessed that our parents have bought something for each of our children! I made a wish list of things that we wanted/needed and my in-laws bought pretty much everything that was on it! Included a 3" think mattress to use in the pack n play! My MIL and my sister have watched the kids for me for everyone of my appointment so far! The Hubs has helped SO SO SO much with cooking and cleaning and being my shoulder to cry on this pregnancy. Add to that, a frustrating job and I'd say he's SUPER DADDY/HUBBY! I am very blessed and so are my children!

Tomorrow is Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a. CFA is my ALL TIME favorite fast food restaurant, so of course I had to make costumes. Sweetie Girl gave lots of input on hers included a black and white polka dot pacifier clip she found in my sewing desk! Her creative little mind immediately saw that it would make an excellent tail! LM has a onesie and I also made shirts for the Hubs and I, but I'm not sure he's willing to participate. Even if it involves free food!

On Sunday, the Hubs and I will be celebrating our 6 year wedding anniversary! A part of me thinks, 6 years, that's all and another part of me thinks, holy cow! We've been married for 6 years! Our lives have changed pretty drastically in 6 years.

When we got married in 2007, the Hubs was about to start his last year of college, I was working at a Staffing Agency and we were living in a tiny, itty bitty 555 square foot apartment with the Mini Pooch. A few months later, I got a different job. We moved to a crappy duplex. The roof started leaking in the kitchen within the first month and it took them 7 months to finally get around to fixing it! The Hubs, graduated and got a full time job in May 2008. Just 4 short months later we found ourselves expecting our first child. It was planned and we were trying, but the Hubs was not fully ready for this. In December, we decided to move to a rental house and that is where we lived when Sweetie Girl was born in May 2009! She changed our lives forever. I became a SAHM and absolutely LOVED it!

We enjoyed our first year with our daughter and in June 2010 decided to move to CO. We absolutely LOVED it there, but struggled financially the entire time we were there. The Hubs struggled to find a job to pay the bills. In June 2011, one week after Sweetie Girl turned 2, we found out we were expecting Baby #2. We were thrilled, but since our finances were so tight, we decided to make the move back to TX, The Hubs got his job back.

On the very last day of January, Little Man was born after 5.5 hours of labor while the Hubs was in Austin on business. In May 2012 we celebrated my birthday, bought a house, Sweetie Girl turned 3 and we bought a car. In December 2012, we found out we were expecting Baby #3. It was a surprise and I struggled most of this pregnancy struggling to grasp the fact that we were having another child. Little Man turned 1, Sweetie Girl turned 4. Now I'm 35 weeks and Baby Boy's arrival is quickly approaching. It took me a while to get here, but I'm really excited to meet this Baby Boy. I know he is going to be the perfect addition to our family!

Birthday Girl!

So, on the 17th I had a doctor appointment and I typed up a post on my phone while I waited about having a rough morning. Sweetie Girl said that I never did anything for her. I was already having a rough morning. As a stay at home mom, I've given up almost everything to raise my children. I spend almost all day everyday taking care of my husband and children. When one of the people you've given your whole life to, says you don't ever do anything for them, it just about breaks your heart.

Anyway, a lot has happened since then. We had Sweetie Girl's birthday party! She decided several months ago she wanted to have a Tea Party birthday. So I set out to plan a cost effective party. I found a china set for $10 at Goodwill, Tea Party hats and other items for the gift bags at Dollar Tree. I used a quilt that we already had for a table cloth. We did sandwiches, fruits and veggie and a few other kid friendly foods. I made the invitations, cake and other decorations. My dad picks out a dress for Sweetie Girl for just about every size she's worn since she was born. My parents live in MI, so they always send a birthday package that she gets to open early. They dress my dad picked out was beautiful! They first thing Sweetie Girl said was that it was perfect for her Tea Party Birthday!

My plan the whole time was to celebrate in our backyard, but with 21 mph winds expected we decided to stay indoors. We had a great time anyway and Sweetie Girl was totally in her element. She is quite the people person and loves when the attention is all on her. She got some great gifts! She got her first big girl bike and LOVES it! She is very much into being a big girl these days!

This past Sunday was her actual birthday! When I woke up, I gave her an additional present. An Origami Owl Living Locket with 4 charms. In February I began selling them and she has been begging for one ever since. Daddy made her pancakes and we headed off to church.

After church Grandma met us at our house and we headed out shopping. G. G. Ellen (Great Grandma) sent some money, so we took her shopping. Let me tell you, this girl knows how to shop! She really wanted some Toms, but my girls feet are too marrow for them. We spent quite a bit of time trying on different sizes to see if we could get the right fit, but no such luck. She was sad, but we weren't finished yet. We headed across the street to Shoe Carnival to look at the Bobs there, but we had the same problem, they were just too wide for her narrow little feet. We found some Roxy slip on shoes that she liked. Surprisingly she wanted silver and they didn't have them in her size. As we were walking out I found some of them on the clearance rack, still no silver, but she decided she liked the pink sparkly ones. They were on clearance, once we got up to the cashier, they were even cheaper! We stopped at Braum's for lunch and ice cream. Then ventured to Target to look at the toys. She picked out at least 10 different things before settling on a Disney Princess cash register. We explained how much money she had and if she had enough money to buy a certain thing and whether she would have to put something back to get a particular item. Overall, I think we spent about 4 hours shopping, but she loved every minute of it!

Overall, I would say, she had a wonderful birthday, that stretched over several days! She got to celebrate with family and friends! Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate Sweetie Girl's 4th birthday! She had a blast!

My 20's

Today is the last day of my 20's. In all honesty, I'm excited to turn 30. I haven't felt any dread about moving into my 30's. My 20's have been full. I wanted to take a minute and share all the wonderful things that have happened in my 20's.

My 20's began in 2003 at the end of my time as an intern at Teen Mania Ministries. Then moving back to Michigan, finding a great church there and getting involved in the the youth and children's ministries. I made some wonderful friends who I miss very much. In 2004, I attended a film school (Compass Arts Academy). In 2005, My sister got married and I moved back to Texas.

My time back in Texas began with moving in with 3 wonderful girls and getting involved with a local church. I made many more wonderful friends. 3 months after moving to Texas I met a guy that I was very attracted to. We remained friends about 6 months and began dating in 2006. We dated for 8 months and he proposed.

In 2007, We got married in Michigan and it was beautiful! We honeymooned near Mackinaw Island and had a wonderful time! Shortly after our wedding we got The Mini Pooch! Eric finished his last year of college, graduated and got a job. Four months later we decided we were ready to have kids. We anticipated it taking much longer to get pregnant, but the next month we found out we were expecting!

It was an exciting time! This was the first grandchild for my parents and they we ecstatic! In December of 2008, we found out we were expecting a little girl! The first granddaughter for Eric's parents. In May 2009, I became a stay at home mom and Sweetie Girl was born. She was tiny, beautiful and changed our life. We spend the next year enjoying our precious daughter!

In June of 2010, We decided to move to Colorado. We absolutely loved it. We had an amazing time, found an amazing church and great friends. Unfortunately Eric was unable to find a steady job and were only there for 1 year. We did find out we were expecting again and that it was a boy before we headed back to Texas in September 2011.

Little Man was born on January 31st! From the start of contractions to his birth was just a short 5.5 hours. The Hubs was in Austin for work and missed the birth by a few hours. My MIL, Sister and friend were all there to help and support me, so I was not alone. My BIL stayed with Elise until my MIL was able to take over. The Hubs drove through the night and stayed at the hospital with us. I have some amazing people in my life!

In May 2012 we purchased our first home and a new family car! In June we got The Big Pooch. In December of 2012 We found out that we were expecting a surprise #3! We waited until the new year to tell anyone. In 2013, Little Man turned 1, we found out we were expecting another boy and we have been trying to agree on a name. Baby Boy is due in August and The Hubs has been given strict instructions not to leave town anywhere close to my due date. The nurses told me I just need to camp out at the hospital when the time comes.

We lost some great people in the last 10 years and we've had some rough times. Overall, it's been great. The best years of my life! I met the most important people in my life. My amazing husband and beautiful children and anticipating the newest member of our growing family.

 Tomorrow, I turn 30 and I'm rather excited! I get to meet my 2nd son, and watch my children grow through the majority of their childhoods. I get to spend my 30's with the love of my life and I can't wait!

Life

Warning! This post is long. I'm vulnerable and honest.

Sometimes life comes at you and it comes at you hard. It's not anyone big thing. It's just a lot of little things that keep piling on top of each other until you feel like any minute it's all going to crumble.

There's a lot going on in my extended family. My Grandma and cousin had surgery last week, they are both doing well. My other Grandma and 2 uncles are in the hospital, all for serious reasons. They're all in Michigan and I'm here in Texas with only my prayers to offer. It's hard to be so far away when your families are dealing with so much.

As a SAHM of 2 with one on the way there is a lack of free time, a lack of sleep, a lack of time with the Hubs, a lack of finances and a lack of time with the Lord. I'll be honest, we weren't planning to have another child so soon and with that comes unexpected bills and unexpected questions that need to be asked. We've had to discuss if our house (that we purchase less than a year ago) is large enough for our family for now. It was never our forever home, but we had planned to be here much longer than this. We will make it work for now. We've had to discuss our family vehicle, (that we purchased less than a year ago) it will fit our whole family and grow well with us, but with the amount of time our kids will be in carseats/boosters, another vehicle could work a lot better. I've never wanted a minivan and have tried to avoid them at all cost. We will make it work for now. Which means we need to purchase 1 or 2 new carseats that will puzzle well with each other. We have enough seats, but we've never had to worry about the width of the seats until now, so the seats that we currently use are very wide and do not puzzle well.